October 18, 2008 11:00pm
THE world's most famous psychic, John Edward, was 15 and managing a video store in downtown Manhattan when he first realised he "wasn't like other folk".
"A woman came in to rent something and I said, 'You're pregnant', and she said, 'No I'm not', and I said, 'Yes you are. Because I'm seeing your aunt who just died in a car accident and she's telling me you're going to name your baby after her'," recounts Edward, now 39, down the phone (and still in his native New York).
"She went white as a ghost and said, 'Oh my God, I do have an aunt who died in a car crash recently'.
"Then a few weeks later, she came in and said she was pregnant. It was a girl and she named her Bonnie, after the aunt.
"After that, the owner would say, 'Please don't do that John, you're freaking out the customers'."
Edward spins this neat yarn like it's the very first time. Perhaps it is and I'm just being cynical. After nearly 25 years in the business, he must get that a lot.
Since then, he says, he's sworn off the process of "attack reading" people. Happily - or unhappily depending on your stance - this also includes journalists ("as soon as I read a journalist, you become subjective to what happens in that reading").
Celebrity status
These days, of course, Edward has no need to ambush anyone. They queue to see him. Sell-out stadiums, top-rating television series, plum book deals. His clients wait two years for a private reading with him.
Say what you will about the man (and many who object to the "grief industry" he apparently symbolises do), John Edward's shows are always staggeringly successful. Last year's forum at Brisbane's sizeable Chandler Complex sold out six months in advance.
Next month, the former ballroom dancing teacher will be back on another Australian tour that takes in a one-night stop in Brisbane.
Public property
And just before we depart the subject of ambushes, last time Edward came to town, he was famously targeted by our notorious TV Chaser boys, who dressed up like ghostbusters and confronted the startled star of the Crossing Over series with a "bullshit meter".
To Edward's credit, he took it all in extremely good spirit.
"Lucky for them I didn't have my five-year-old son with me," the medium now says.
"I probably would have snapped. I've had so many death threats over the years and safety and security has always been a real problem for myself and my family. The thing they had going for them was that it was daytime and a crowded public place. My first thought was, 'Who the hell would attack me in a place like this?' " he laughs.
I ask Edward whether it's inevitable in his unconventional line of work, that people will always want a piece of him in public.
"Absolutely," he agrees. "My wife will give me orders before a party: 'Don't let the conversation come anywhere near you. I want my husband with me, I don't want to be sitting there by myself'."
In his private life, too, Edward's unusual ability (he declines to call it "a gift") can cause friction.
"For my wife, Sandra, (being married to me) is probably one of the most unfair roles she's in.
"Because an argument between us is never fair. If you're talking to me and saying, 'Yes, I totally agree with you', but energetically you're coming at me with, 'Oh my God, you're such an ass', then that's always going to overpower the words.
"That's got to be really tough on her. And the kids."
No cure
Edward says he himself is alarmed by people who look to mediums like him, psychic evangelists, as a cure for their grief.
"This is not a magic wand of healing. It's a tool that can help someone in their healing process, but they still have to do the work," he says.
How does he wield this highly bankable talent to benefit his life?
"Every day I use it," he says. "It allows me to call people on stuff, not play the games that other people play."
John Edward appears at the Sleeman Centre/Chandler Theatre on November 11. Bookings www.ticketmaster.com.au.
